TIRANA, Feb. 10 – Gazmend Shalsi has taken over as the new director of the country’s biggest port of Durres, replacing Selim Belortaja, who unexpectedly resigned few days ago to be appointed as deputy foreign minister later this week.
Shalsi, 48, is mechanical engineer who for the past seven years has been working as a director of the La Petrolifera Italo Albanese, one of the country’s biggest oil companies which operates a storage terminal in the Bay of Vlora, southern Albania.
Belortaja, who has been the director of Durres Port for one and a half years, was appointed later this week as a deputy foreign minister, a post which he also held before.
The Durres Port Authority, which is the key hub for Albania’s exports and imports, says it handled 3.7 million tonnes of goods in 2014, up only 3 percent compared to 2013, reflecting the slowdown of Albania’s exports last year.
